


Enough

by Saintstone



Category: Original Work
Genre: Food, Gen, Historical, Original Fiction, Revolution, farming, hunger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:14:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26556427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saintstone/pseuds/Saintstone
Summary: A short story of people without much being taken for everything by their lord
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Enough

The harvest was bad. A blight brought the spring crop to ruin and the summer came too late to replenish. The stored grains have been run through and would be empty if not for the rats who compete with us for the scraps. Even the meat from the thieves would not be enough.

Together we appeal to our lord groveling to his manor. He refuses to meet us so we try again, stronger, and yet twice he refuses. A third attempt is made, and not until he could hear that the gathering was bigger than the first and the second did he come out.

I represent my people. I tell the lord that we go hungry. That the harvest yielded not even a mercy. I ask him to lend us some grain so we may yet make it through winter. The lord, from his balcony, promises us the food in his stores but with the contract that we restore it twice-fold in the next year. In our hunger we think this a blessing.

The harvest was fine. The spring brought with it life and the summer was warm and we had plenty of grain for our bread, or so we thought. When the collector came he reminded us of our lord’s generosity and took from us till the lord’s stores were filled to brim. Left with but a pittance of our stocks we knew it would not be enough.

Together again we appeal to our lord trudging to his manor. He refuses to meet us so we try again. Twice it takes for him to meet us, for it was harder to ignore a gathering larger than the year before.

I step forward. I tell the lord that we go hungry again. That the harvest yielded proper this year but with our tributes so steep we wouldn’t have enough. I ask him to lend us some grain so we may not suffer the winter. The lord, from his balcony, promises us the food in his stores but at cost. I plead that we have none to barter with but he tells us the same arms and backs that bred his harvest can do the same in his mines and for that we’d have our bread. In our hopelessness we think this fair.

The harvest was fine again. The spring once more brought us our grain and the summer was as plentiful as the prior, but even then we will not have enough. The mines claimed too many, either broken or passed, and the fields lay untamed and barren taking with them their share of what the harvest would be. Even still the collector comes and asks not for the tax we were accustomed to but for the amount we paid the year prior as the lord now claims we can bear that burden.

Together again we appeal to our lord marching to his manor. He refuses to meet us but we won’t try again. The gathering, larger than the years before, tells the lord that we have had enough.

I step forward and so do the rest. The lord’s collector now fodder for the harvest next year. The guests and his kin now lay broken as did our families, and now we stand on the balcony and the lord below where we once gathered. Those who stood with me tell me to be the first to sit and as I take the lord’s seat I wonder if I will be enough.


End file.
